Blue Bank Leadership Team | Water Finance & Conservation

We are proud to have a world-class team of regional and thematic experts contributing to this important work.

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Ricardo Bayon

Board Member

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Ricardo is founder and partner of Encourage Capital, an asset management firm focused on profitable and strategic investments to solve critical social and environmental problems.

For nearly two decades, he has specialized on issues related to climate, water, finance, banking, and the environment. Prior to Encourage Capital, he co-founded EKO Asset Management Partners and the Ecosystem Marketplace. Before that he worked at IUCN and also did consulting for numerous organizations including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, The Nature Conservancy, and Domini Social Investment.

Ricardo is also part of the Water Solutions Network and a co-author of “Liquid Assets: Investing for Impact in the Colorado River Basin.”

Airrion “Air” Copeland

Executive Director

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Airrion “Air” Copeland is a creative executive, impact strategist, and nationally recognized storyteller serving as Executive Director of BlueCommons, where he advances innovative revolving finance and cross-sector partnerships to accelerate equitable, community-led water solutions across the Colorado River Basin and beyond. He brings more than two decades of leadership at the intersection of climate, health, and social impact, with prior executive roles at Intersectional Environmentalist, The 5 Gyres Institute, UCLA Health, and national nonprofit networks. Air combines systems change strategy with powerful narrative and partnership building to mobilize capital and public support for lasting environmental solutions.

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Peter Culp

Board Member

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Peter is Managing Partner at Culp & Kelly, LLP. He is a nationally-recognized expert in water law and policy, with more than 20 years of experience representing municipalities, water agencies, industrial and energy concerns, investment firms, and nonprofit organizations and foundations in matters related to surface water and groundwater rights, state and federal regulation, and the Law of the Colorado River.

Peter has been deeply involved in the development of a range of federal, state and local policy solutions, as well as the design and deployment of innovative investment tools for the management of local and regional water resource scarcity. He was elected to the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2017.

Elizabeth Gonzalez

Operations Manager

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Elizabeth currently serves as the Operations Manager. She brings with her nearly three decades of nonprofit experience providing finance, administrative, and operational leadership to a range of public lands, conservation, and social justice organizations across the western United States. Over the past decade, Elizabeth has held various leadership roles within the public lands sector, most recently serving as the Chief Operating Officer for a nonprofit supporting national parks in the Pacific Northwest.

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Kathy Robb

Board Member

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Kathy is an environmental lawyer with over 35 years of experience, nationally-recognized in water-driven litigation and advising on transactions and sustainability, representing water districts, investors, developers, lenders, energy companies, industrial and paper companies, and chemical companies across the U.S. in state, federal and the U.S. Supreme courts. In addition to leading the environmental practice of a large U.S. law firm, she recently served as the CEO of Blue Access LLC, a sustainable finance company focused on water. Kathy has co-founded three environmental-related non-profit organizations, and is the president of the Environmental Law Institute’s Leadership Council in Washington, DC, and is Vice-Chair of the Waterfront Alliance in New York City.

Kathy was elected to the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2016, and named as a “Sustainable 100” by New York’s City and State in 2017.

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Kathryn Sorensen

Board Member

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Kathryn is Director of Research at ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. She was formerly director of Phoenix Water Services and has with extensive experience leading large municipal water systems.

Kathryn’s service in water management includes positions as a governor-appointed member of the AZ Water Banking Authority Commission, member of the AZ Colorado River Reconsultation Committee, board member of the Water Research Foundation, member of the state of AZ’s Colorado River Steering Committee, advisory committee member of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of AZ, board secretary of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Effective Utility Management Leadership Group, and member of the Rates and Charges Subcommittee of the American Water Works Association.

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Elijah Tangenberg

Project Development Consultant

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Elijah is a water resources expert whose work focuses on developing and implementing innovative water conservation programs. His focus centers on creating partner relationships and strategies for BlueCommons. He has worked with municipalities, non-profits and businesses to rapidly create water-saving projects tailored to their goals and operations. He also has experience analyzing the efficacy of water markets and groundwater management organizations in the American West.

Representative Experience

Worked with a large Arizona municipality to develop water conservation programs built on public-private partnerships
Developed collaborations between governments, non-profits and corporate partners on sensitive water resource issues
Researched the design and implementation of natural resource markets using the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework

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Sam Tucker

Board Member

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Sam serves as Director of the Colorado River Sustainability Campaign. He has 25 years of experience in conservation and philanthropy, focused primarily on land and water issues in western North America. He has worked to find solutions to long-standing challenges in landscapes ranging from the Arctic coastal plain of Alaska to the desert rivers of the U.S. Southwest. He recently served as senior advisor for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with a focus on its Colorado Plateau strategy.

In recent years, Sam was an independent consultant, serving environmental foundations and nonprofits. His clients included the Hewlett Foundation, the Moore Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy.